And this is what it looked like in 1914:
If your thinking, "Gee, I wonder if....", well you're right. Hollywood resident L. Frank Baum formed, and was President of, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company in 1914, in order to picturize his books.
Oz Girl Logo
Scarecrow and corn dancers
Wicked Witch and helpful Donkey
Tin Man and headless Witch
It was also a studio lot of a very important first. Louis Gottschalk, Baum's Vice President and dear friend was a composer who went on to create film scores for such silent classics as, "Broken Blossoms", "The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalyspe" and "The Three Musketeers", wrote the first full film scores for the studio's products. Until then only cue sheets were made for movies.
After Oz closed up shop, Famous Players-Lasky used the facility for production and then it became the National Film Corporation Of America where Elmo Lincoln envisaged the role of Tarzan the Ape Man.
Elmo Lincoln
Shhh, he's receiving the call of the wild.
6 comments:
That is a fascinating piece of Hollywood history that was not known to me... I bet there is a great deal that you could teach me!
Okay Stephen, now Phoebe Snow's version of "Teach Me Tonight" is going through my head. And that's a good thing!
How very cool!
As a Oz fanatic, I'd heard of these films, but I'd never really known Baum was such a pioneer.
yet another A+ for felix!
Oh my god, I sit at that traffic light every day. I love you, Felix!
Fascinating bit of history. I had no idea any of this happened.
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